SamizdatMath

This is NOT your typical "is this a prime or composite number, and if it is composite, show the prime factor" exercise. No, this is an activity that actually demonstrates how figuring out prime factors is linked to encrypting information securely. If you know about the Russian Postal Service puzzle, then you'll appreciate this. There are 10 different puzzles, and then a "DIY" where your students can make their own "prime puzzlers" to share with one another. If they're really good, send them to

And we're back! This is the first of a set of "coin card" activities that I designed for our first grade teachers and which received universal "thumbs up, Robert!" from the students who used them. I even tried it out on a 2nd grader who needed some remediation and she went to town on it as well. So what's so good about these? Let me count the ways: 1) Quantity: there are 30 different cards, which means that its not so many that your kids will get lost, but not so few that they'll finish them

Ah yes, nice to see you back again. This is a number comparison activity I developed for my first grade teacher, but I've also used it with my kindergarteners and pre-k. It's cute, but not cutesy. Students take a number tile and place it on the game sheet at the top. They then take additional number tiles and decide whether it is an "elephant" (bigger than the number at the top) or "mouse" (smaller than the number at the top) and paste the correct stamp in the second column. A second version i

Number Sense is an important component of a child's ability to learn and understand mathematics. However, number sense in the early grades is more than matching a numeral to a quantity: it is also having a "feel" for how numbers compare to one another. It is the basis for how we differentiate answers that are reasonable from those that are nonsensical. It is how we solve problems without the aid of a pencil, calculator or algorithm. This packet focuses on a specific aspect of number sense in t

Howdy peeps, how are you all doing? I think you’re really going to like this activity (it is not a “product,” it is an activity) and if you paid the royal sum of $3.95 for it, you should consider it a bargain: it represents the work of someone who has 30 years of pre-K through college mathematics behind him, so you know it’s good for your kids. This activity is based on the idea that in order to embed concepts you have to develop “rich associations” between them. That is, when the student “se

Straight out of Gowanus, Brooklyn, here are bright & beautiful illustrated subway cars that can be connected to make a train of number facts. NOW IN COLOR! I've taken these specialty created subway illustrations (available NOWHERE ELSE!) and re-touched them in beautiful color ready to be printed, laminated and cut. Keep them for a lifetime! Print out each set of b& w subway cards on a different colored card stock (to keep them sorted) and challenge children to a variety of different skip count